Line #48 OnceOriginalNowCommon/Literature


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8	* {{Conversed\|Trope}} in ''Literature/OneThousandAndOneMoviesYouMustSeeBeforeYouDie''. The entry for ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'' notes that while the opening scene may seem banal nowadays, that's only because it has been imitated so much.
9	* Indicating this trope is at least as [[OlderThanFeudalism old as feudalism]], within the first few lines of Chaucer's Literature/TheCanterburyTales are references to "sweet April showers" and to a character whose beard is "as white as the daisy." Six centuries ago, these were neologisms coined by Chaucer and not clichés.
10	* LightNovels set in a WizardingSchool (and usually the {{harem\|Genre}} hijinks they feature) were a major critical whipping boy during the first half of TheNewTens (and [[ClicheStorm not]] [[FollowTheLeader without reason]]). Because of such a major backlash, series like ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' and ''Literature/InfiniteStratos'' look awfully tired today, when they were in fact some of the first to even establish that genre as a cash cow in the first place. ''Index'', while it does love its harem shenanigans, is an action series first and foremost and largely drops the {{Fanservice}} when it's time to get serious, and its "school" backdrop is largely window dressing as most non-{{Filler}} arcs ''don't even take place in school''. ''Infinite Stratos'', on the other hand, is a largely light-hearted {{ecchi}} harem, with the titular {{Mecha}} really only used as window dressing, therefore all the {{Fanservice}} fits with its tone and doesn't seem out of place. However, due to the CriticalBacklash, both have fallen victim to the same "hate on principle" as their predecessors, even though they were the ones that all the others copied in the first place.
11	** ''Literature/{{Maburaho}}'' is even worse in that regard--any reader today would see the tired WizardingSchool setting, the bland protagonist, and the harem of girls competing for his attention for [[StrangledByTheRedString rather flimsy reasons]], assume it to be a product of the early [=2010s=] and tune out quickly, but the novels began publication in 2000 and the anime adaptation first aired in 2003, well before light novels of this genre even became popular. It also has a host of character driven {{Story Arc}}s, which is more than can be said of those that follow it.
12	* ''Literature/AmadisOfGaul'' is the most important knight-errant ChivalricRomance of all time, but today it seems dated, to the point that it has been all but forgotten and replaced in importance by its {{Deconstruction}}, ''Literature/DonQuixote'' (although ''Amadis of Gaul'' is saved from the fire for its merits in the chapter where the library of Don Quixote is being burned, indicating that Cervantes himself was aware of this trope to some degree).
13	-->''The first that Master Nicholas put into his hand was "The four books of Amadis of Gaul." "This seems a mysterious thing," said the curate, "for, as I have heard say, [[UrExample this was the first book of chivalry printed in Spain]], [[FollowTheLeader and from this all the others derive their birth and origin;]] [[MisBlamed so it seems to me that we ought inexorably to condemn it to the flames as the founder of so vile a sect.]]"''
14	-->''"Nay, sir," said the barber, "I too, have heard say that [[TropeMakers this is the best of all the books of this kind that have been written, and so, as something singular in its line]], it ought to be pardoned."''
15	-->''"True," said the curate; "and for that reason let its life be spared for the present. Let us see that other which is next to it."''
16	* ''Literature/AnnieOnMyMind''. The villains are one-dimensional, the romance develops in a short time (a month or so), and the heroes, {{Woobie}}s or not, make some stupid decisions. These tend to turn people off the book. They forget that this was one of the first books to portray lesbians in a positive light, without having them [[CureYourGays turn straight]] or [[BuryYourGays die]].
17	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', despite having [[ValuesResonance aged much better than other examples of this trope]], still does show its age:
18	** When it was released, most series intended for young adults were treated as standalones. As a result, a modern viewer might get annoyed at how [[SlowPacedBeginning the premise is rehashed in almost every book]], the [[{{Filler}} abundance of adventures that don't mean much]], [[ArcFatigue how long it takes before the plot moves forward]], and [[AsYouKnow how many plot advancements get rehashed in later books]]. These can come off as tedious for modern readers who are used to the concept of {{Continuity}} in a YA book series, but they were necessary in a time when readers weren't expecting to ''need'' to have read previous books in order to understand the plot.
19	** It was released in the height of [[NinetiesAntiHero 90s edge]] and [[QuirkyWork 90s weirdness]]. A lot of elements were written to be shocking and extreme ([[ValuesDissonance at least at the time]]), so not much attention was paid toward worldbuilding beyond what would be most horrifying, resulting in a lot of PlanetOfHats.
20	* ''Literature/AreYouThereGodItsMeMargaret'' is seen as a pretty tame book by today's standards, but its frank discussion of puberty and religious issues were controversial in the '70s when it was written, and resulted in it being banned from many schools.
21	* ''Literature/{{The Art of War\|SunTzu}}'' by Sun Tzu seems like nothing but simple common sense when read today by anyone with an interest in military strategy; however, at its time it most certainly was not. For example, Sun Tzu's claim that spies were just as important to warfare as soldiers and generals was considered highly controversial, especially since it was put alongside a declaration that fortune-tellers and waiting for divine intervention were useless.
22	* While Creator/IsaacAsimov is still widely respected for his massive influence on the science-fiction genre, his works can seem pretty dated and hokey today--largely because ''almost every subsequent sci-fi author'' has made use of the speculative concepts that he helped to popularize. Strangely enough, though, easily the most groundbreaking aspect of his work is also the one that can seem the least remarkable to modern readers: most of his sci-fi works also incorporate elements of ''other'' genres (e.g. mystery, comedy, political thriller, romance, etc.). Asimov was one of the first sci-fi authors to argue that sci-fi didn't necessarily need to be a genre unto itself, but could be combined with elements of other genres in order to appeal to a more broad audience. When ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'' was first published in 1953, the very idea of a {{whodunnit}} murder mystery set in '''the future''' was practically unheard-of.
23	* ''Literature/TheBadSeed'' chilled readers to the bone back in 1954. Its story of [[EnfantTerrible a cute, doll-faced little girl who manipulates her peers and ruins their lives]] was at the time pretty much unheard of. It was also important in making people realize that parents aren't always to blame for a child's misconduct. With the advent of later novels like 1962's ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' and 1993's ''Film/TheGoodSon'', modern readers are less likely to be impacted the same way as the 1950s generation was. As psychology has marched on, the novel's implication that "some people are just born evil" has also become highly debatable, and—since this was before the second wave of feminism in the 1960s—its depiction of several mothers as doting housewives has not helped its cause.
24	* Creator/BeverlyCleary's ''Literature/HenryHuggins'' and ''Literature/RamonaQuimby'' series were unusual in several ways:
25	** The Ramona series was a spinoff of the Henry Huggins series, being something of a perspective flip: Both series took place in the same neighbourhood and followed the same characters, just that the perspective flipped from Henry and his family to Ramona and her family. The series were both able to stand on their own, and one didn't need to read the other books to understand what was going on (but it sure helped since the characters regularly referred to people and events from each other's respective series). These days, a SpinOff novel series isn't anything to write home about, but at the time it was an extremely novel idea.
26	** The books themselves were intended to be humorous and depict ParentsAsPeople. Despite some of the wacky hijinks that ensued, the ''Ramona'' series actually had the characters talk about issues young children would face--such as needing to take on responsibilities for housework themselves, moving to a new house, starting at a new school, parents losing jobs, and facing a reality of simply getting older and how things will change. A modern reader who grew up on series such as ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' might see these books as almost unrealistically tame.
27	* ''Ball Four'', a 1970 book by Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Bouton, was so controversial that MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn called the book "detrimental to baseball" and tried unsuccessfully to make Bouton sign a statement saying the book was fictional. Today, its revelations about the behind-the-scenes activities of major league players, which made Bouton extremely unpopular among many in the baseball community for violating the "sanctity of the clubhouse", don't seem nearly as shocking. One particular example is the book's revelation of widespread amphetamine use by major league players, which seems quaint compared to the steroids scandals of recent years.
28	* When ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' first came out, Ce'Nedra, the "spoiled brat" who becomes "a little tiger when the chips are down" (to quote the author himself) served as a SpiritualAntithesis to the damsel types that previously littered the high fantasy genre. In the years since, with the advent of high-fantasy works like ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' and ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' that offer a variety of major female characters in various roles, Ce'Nedra's distance from the kind of damsel characters she was intended to parody has shrunk.
29	* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', a 1974 novel by Creator/StephenKing, is this for the way it depicts religion. For years, many horror stories centered around religion, like ''Film/RosemarysBaby'' and ''Literature/TheExorcist'', portrayed God-worshippers as the good guys who fight back heroically against the forces of the Devil. In the case of ''Carrie'', the religious individual, the title character's mother, is a ''villain'', depicted as abusive, delusional, and downright insane. These days, with the growing acceptance of atheism and controversies regarding religious extremism, the character's arc almost seems like an annoying, parodic tract.
30	** ''Carrie'' was also remarkable in the way it depicted the title character's bullies as psychopathic predators. It was truly shocking and outrageous when it was first published, but in the 21st century, with stories of vicious bullying permeating the headlines and anti-bullying movements in full swing, their behavior becomes less unlikely and eerily reminiscent of reality.
31	* Creator/JDSalinger's ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' started an {{Angst}} revolution in literature. Angst has been a part of literature ever since ''Literature/WutheringHeights'', ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', and even ''Literature/TheIliad'' ([[AchillesInHisTent Achilles sitting in his tent and sulking]], anyone?), but Salinger presented the topics in such eloquent (and contemporary) language that it struck readers as being more legitimately emotional compared to the dated and hard to read. As a result, those who have read similar-style books before reading Salinger's book often write ''Catcher'' off as okay at best, and a poor man's Creator/ChuckPalahniuk at worst. The use of a casual, first-person writing style also contributes heavily to making it seem dated, as does the heavy use of slang and turns of phrase that are alien to a modern reader. On top of that, almost everybody admonishes Holden not to swear when the worst thing he says is...[[GoshDangItToHeck "goddamn".]] This leads to modern readers, who hear [[ObligatorySwearing far stronger curse words]] on a daily basis, seeing Holden as more of a RuleAbidingRebel when he was, for his time, quite a potty-mouth.
32	** This is parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode [[http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s14e02-the-tale-of-scrotie-mcboogerballs "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs"]], where the kids are required to read ''The Catcher in the Rye'' for school and, after hearing so much about how controversial it was, are disappointed by how tame they find it to be. Cartman even claims the book was a conspiracy to get kids to read by making it seem a lot edgier than it was.
33	** You could argue that not only was Salinger groundbreaking, he was also way, ''way'' ahead of his time. The sarcastic first-person narrator he pioneered has become so popular in fictional media involving teenagers that people tend to forget it only really took off as recently as TheNineties.
34	* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Touma's [[GameBreaker absurdly broken power]], [[UnderdogsNeverLose seeming inability to lose]], and [[KirkSummation constant moral preaching]] can quickly get on a reader's nerves, but he was one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s for the StockLightNovelHero and in fact, in the modern day where {{Showy Invincible Hero}}es are the norm for light novels, looks downright {{subver\|tedTrope}}sive. Both his incredible power and his incredible goodness are given concrete, in-universe explanations and are noticed, pointed out, and played with, which is far more than most light novel heroes in this day and age get.
35	* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' nowadays seems like a lot of other books you have probably read in your life: Kids discovering a mysterious pathway to another world, finding their arrival to this strange new world to be predicted in prophecy, meeting some residents who are pleased to see them while meeting others who want them all dead, and later embarking on a large adventure to save the world. Many, ''many'' later fantasy novels for kids and even adults follow this format, with Japan even having [[{{Isekai}} an entire genre]] dedicated to it, making it seem less interesting.
36	* ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' was a huge influence on fantasy, arguably contributing just as much as ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. While most people are [[AdaptationDisplacement unfamilair with the stuff written by Robert E Howard]] and are more familiar with [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 the movie]], Howard's works can seem flat out generic or boring by a modern standard due to its slew of imitators and successors.
37	* ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'' (1889) has fallen victim to this. It was one of the earliest TimeTravel novels, and the protagonist's efforts to introduce "modern" technology and values in TheMiddleAges was groundbreaking in its own right. However this idea was followed in (among others) ''Literature/LestDarknessFall'' (1941), which was itself influential in the AlternateHistory genre, ''Literature/ConradStargard'' series, the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series, and ''Literature/{{Timeline}}''. While The Man Who Came Early (1956) by Creator/PoulAnderson served as an influential {{Deconstruction}} of the concept, nowadays it's hard to realize what was unique about the original novel.
38	* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' is often hailed as one of, if not ''the'' greatest revenge stories of all time and remains a classic to this day. However, with the number of stories that have popped up to [[FollowTheLeader ape the plot of the novel]] since then (including many a poorly-written RevengeFic), it can be hard to see what makes this story so great.
39	* Creator/DashiellHammett and Creator/RaymondChandler. Their hard-boiled detective fiction broke the mold and introduced just about every trope in the genre, which unfortunately makes their novels come off as cliche and boring to modern readers.
40	** The same goes for the inventors of "classic" detective fiction, Creator/ArthurDoyle and Creator/AgathaChristie in particular. Many of the stories and novels by both are stuffed with clichés and twists that are no longer effective on a modern-day reader due to overexposure.
41	** While the works of Conan Doyle may seem extremely dated today, so do the works of the mystery authors that succeeded him--though hugely successful at the time, many of their works are almost unreadable today due to how many of their once-innovative mysteries have been imitated by ''their'' successors. And unlike the authors who remain popular today, such as Creator/AgathaChristie, their writing wasn't good enough to survive when their plots ceased to be novelties.
42	** Once [[DiscussedTrop discussed]] by Creator/IsaacAsimov: when he set out to write some mysteries of his own, he soon reached the conclusion that Christie had already used up nearly every twist in existence.
43	* Literature/TheDeathGateCycle are considered to be some of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's best work. Unfortunately, describing them (A FeudalFuture long after nuclear war destroyed it all) today comes off as an almost ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' level of ClicheStorm.
44	* Creator/DennisWheatley was a British thriller writer who began his career in the 1920s and died in 1977. Many of his otherwise conventional adventure stories contained elements of black magic and Satanism, which (at the time) were considered highly cutting-edge and daring. Many of today's cliches of such fiction were originally invented by him. Since many of his works feature characters astral travelling, it might also be said that modern cyberpunk also stems from his ideas. Today, however, due to the racism, homophobia, sexism, class-consciousness, and Anglocentricity of his ideas, the novels appear quaint at best and extremely offensive at worst.
45	* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/EqualRites'' was originally a subversion of the "witches = bad, wizards = good" trends in fantasy. However, the conventions used have since become so commonplace that today the book just sounds preachy.
46	** Creator/TerryPratchett was amused to be told he was "following in the grand tradition of Creator/JKRowling", given that he had been writing and published for two decades longer than Rowling.
47	* ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is this to Western literature. The first part of the novel had a RandomEventsPlot, a RomanticPlotTumor, and other common tropes, but the EvenBetterSequel had almost none of the tropes under the WritingPitfallIndex. Imagine a world where everyone ignored [[LitClassTropes literary techniques]]. If it looks like nothing special today, that's's because everything after it followed the techniques that made it successful.
48	* Creator/DrSeuss. When he started producing books for children featuring nonsensical word usage and surreal art, he was considered both genius and highly controversial. Nowadays children's books regularly employ RhymesOnADime, {{Perfectly Cromulent Word}}s, and all sorts of different art styles, making Seuss's books blend right in.
49	* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', being the ultimate vampire TropeMaker, has been so thoroughly ripped off, parodied, retooled and revamped that even many {{Goth}}s are sick of him.
50	** To a lesser extent, this happened to Dracula's precursor, ''Literature/VarneyTheVampire'', which invented the idea of a vampire with fangs, puncture marks on the throat, and [[AntiVillain the sympathetic vampire]].
51	** Dracula is an interesting case, in that he has become so LostInImitation, those who read the original novel are generally shocked by his inhuman appearance, total amorality (Stoker's Dracula never showed any signs of guilt or love), and clever schemes, rather than the endless tales of tragic beauty and VampireVords that he is incorrectly remembered for (hell, he [[UnbuiltTrope actually makes it a point]] ''[[DefiedTrope not]]'' [[UnbuiltTrope to show any signs of an accent!]])
52	* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' started the DragonRider trend in the 1960s, and you would be hard-pressed to find current fantasy writers who ''don't'' make dragons a BondCreature in some way.
53	* The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' books. People new to it (and in particular the TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms novels) and who scoff at [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Drizzt]] being the emo badass rebel from an evil society don't realize just how influencial those books were in the early '90s--and that they inspired a lot of the clichés people now deride the books for using. Author Creator/RASalvatore has even had readers come up to him at conventions to say "A good dual-wielding Drow ranger? How cliche!"
54	** ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' suffers from this trope as well. It was the first series of books set in a gaming world to achieve popular acclaim. Today, uninformed reviews exist of the original Chronicles that tear them apart for having such a cheesy/overdone/cliched setting and cast of characters.
55	* Creator/ErnestHemingway. Read any novel or watch a movie on wartime experiences before reading ''Literature/AFarewellToArms'', and it'll end up looking like just another run-of-the-mill war story.
56	* It's probably fair to say that these days most people approaching Fritz Leiber's ''Literature/FafhrdAndTheGrayMouser'' for the first time will be quite familiar with ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' or related media like ''VideoGame/BaldursGate''. Viewed from this perspective, the stories and especially the StandardFantasySetting can often seem like a writeup of someone's D&D sessions. The episodic short story format exacerbates this because each time our heroes are dealing with a new job or quest. Except, of course, that most of the stories were written decades before the first roleplaying games, and it was these stories perhaps more than any other source which informed the kind of archetypes on which D&D leans so heavily.
57	* The ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' series made {{Gamebooks}} well-known among the general audience and brought the peak of the gamebook craze during the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, while still remembered fondly by those who lived these glory days, some books are critisized for their weak characterization and weak story, as well as their FakeDifficulty. It's especially true in the case of ''Literature/TheWarlockOfFiretopMountain'', the very first book of the series. It is the book that started it all, but compared to later installments, its gameplay seems standard and its story is practically non-existant.
58	* ''Literature/TheFlameAndTheFlower''. A romance novel with explicit sex and a ReformedRake falling for TheIngenue? Isn't that basically all of them? Well...for those not in the know, ''The Flame and the Flower'' all but invented the modern bodice ripper. Prior to this book's publication in 1972 romance novels tended to be very chaste, while this one was significantly HotterAndSexier. Its popularity led to it having a huge influence on the genre, with many subsequent romance novels taking inspiration from this one. It's worth noting that parts of the plot haven't aged particularly well (mostly the issues surrounding consent in the romance, which unfortunately got imitated a lot as well), but for better or worse it was hugely influential to the romance genre.
59	* ''Literature/TheGreatGodPan'' (1894) was a prototype CosmicHorrorStory, notable for "the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds." It was cited as a major influence by Creator/HPLovecraft and Creator/StephenKing. But part of the suspense is killed for the modern reader, who knows exactly what to expect from the genre.
60	* ''Literature/HarryPotter'', while [[OlderThanTheyThink not the first to come up with its concept]], was a pretty big influencer of young adult literature:
61	** The series received critical and commercial acclaim, in a time in which Young Adult books (at least, what we would call Young Adult books today) were kept on a single shelf in the back of the bookstores--[[SciFiGhetto behind the science fiction and fantasy books]]. While it's far from the only Young Adult book series to [[OutOfTheGhetto escape the ghetto]], it was among the first. These days, many YA works are made into films and often find their way onto bestseller lists.
62	** The books were considered to be [[DoorStopper quite large]] by the standards of the time. A lot of publishers didn't think [[ViewersAreMorons kids in particular would have the attention span to read something above 300 pages]], whereas adults would find the [[AudienceAlienatingPremise premise]] to be too juvenile, and would be [[RatedMForMoney ashamed to read a children's book]]. When TheNewTens began, books became much thicker, since Harry Potter was one of the first books to teach publishers kids ''did'' in fact have the attention span for longer works.
63	** Its setting was an UrbanFantasy--a rarity in a time in which most childrens' books were historical period pieces, the present day, a StandardFantasySetting, or on the more scientific (but [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture not too far forward]]) side of SpeculativeFiction. In the days of [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Isekai]], [[FollowTheLeader imitators]], and more, it seems to be rather stale, but it was Harry Potter that allowed the genre to even be allowed in YA novels.
64	*** UrbanFantasy itself was somewhat obscure, and unless you were talking about ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', was mostly buried deep on the shelves [[SciFiGhetto of Science Fiction and Fantasy books]].
65	** It combined [[GrowingUpSucks issues teenagers experienced]] alongside more fantastical elements. Characters would angst over the school's BigGame or teenage school drama, then angst over an exam over magic theory and brew potions. Most books that talked about real life issues would often focus ''solely'' on them and set it in the present day.
66	** Harry Potter also had a MythArc - Which, while [[RuleOfThree far from the first to do this]], most childrens' book series were [[RandomEventsPlot episodic in nature]] with the occasional passage of time, (But [[NotAllowedToGrowUp not too much]]), with a ''few'' having a well defined MythArc. After books like Harry Potter, ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' and ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', it's hard to believe just how much this meant back in the day.
67	* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
68	** The series as a whole has fallen into this, despite its explosive popularity during the late 2000s thanks to its anime adaptation. While it initially drew in a lot of fans due to its GenreBusting of various anime genres and character archetypes, its plot and jokes have been [[FollowTheLeader copied by many other series to cash in on its success]], along with the WolverinePublicity of the character. Nowadays, most newcomers look back on the series and are unable to understand what made it so special, especially after the sharp decline in its popularity following [[ArcFatigue how the anime handled the infamous Endless Eight Arc]].
69	** Main viewpoint character Kyon is also an example on his own; he essentially [[TropeCodifier codified]] the StockLightNovelEveryman and his [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic, self-aware personality]] and [[LemonyNarrator narration]] were considered witty and refreshing when the series first became popular, but after years of very similar protagonists in other light novel series his character doesn't seem particularly groundbreaking.
70	* Many novels and stories by Creator/HGWells contain what seem like very dated, unambitious and dull uses of sci-fi devices. For example, in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', the time traveller simply goes to the future, has a look at what it's like... and then comes back home again. However, Wells one of the earlier examples of an author who wrote what we would now consider to be scifi, to the extent that the term 'science fiction' did not exist - Wells himself invented the term 'scientific romance' to describe his works. This can be applied equally to many other early sci-fi works. Also, Wells is famous for inventing ''nearly every other sci-fi trope'' and inputting them in his stories. Said devices are now part of nearly every novel, comic, video game, movie and anime that has science fiction elements.
71	** ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' may seem rather rote today with its dystopian future, but at the time, this idea that the future could be anything but progress towards utopia was rather shocking, especially with its depiction of humanity degenerating into two rather more primitive subspecies. This spoke directly to fears of degeneration of the human species after Darwin's theory of evolution became current.
72	** When it was first published in 1898, ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', arguably the ''first'' alien invasion story, was heavily criticised for portraying the aliens as shockingly brutal and cruel, destroying things that had no strategic value and slaughtering civilians. The argument was that alien or not, no civilised culture would behave so barbarically. These days, with almost every alien invasion story including a mandatory scene where [[MonumentalDamage the aliens destroy buildings that have no strategic value]] and slaughter people just to show how evil they are, the Martians come across as rather tame in comparison. Additionally, Real Life conflict showed that "civilised" humans were more than capable of committing far worse atrocities.
73	*** In the novel, the humans are shocked at the Martians producing on the spot enough aluminum to build machines from. With the price of the stuff back then, a modern analogue would be stamping coal into diamond windows.
74	* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1'': This book heavily influenced geek humor during the 1980s, but by more or less codifying the genre, doomed itself to this category. It also suffers from a degree of [[DiscreditedMeme Python syndrome]].
75	* [[Creator/HPLovecraft Howard P. Lovecraft]], widely recognized as the founder of the CosmicHorrorStory and the EldritchAbomination trope. Certain stories of his can now come across as charmingly old-fashioned and not necessarily all that horrifying. Or, in the case of his obvious racism, not-so-charming.
76	** ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' and "Literature/TheDunwichHorror" both have very familiar [[HillbillyHorrors Hillbilly Horror]] plots involving degenerate mutants and [[TownWithADarkSecret towns with dark secrets]].
77	* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is set in a dystopian future TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, inspired by [[RealLifeWritesThePlot coverage on real life terrorist events and reality TV]]. It's largely credited with starting one of the trends of Young Adult literature - dystopias and rebellion. These days, it seems largely tame - but it was one of the darkest books available on the "Young Adult" shelf. Additionally, it made several other series like ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' (Which predated Hunger Games by several years) seem relatively tame by comparison, or even be ''mistaken'' as ''Hunger Games'' clones.
78	* [[Creator/JackLondon Jack London's]] ''Literature/TheIronHeel'' is arguably the first Futuristic Dystopia novel ever written. The central premise of the story - an evil MegaCorp takes over the government, takes control of the media, violently oppresses all free speech and thought, etc. - was novel and topical (and quite scarily plausible) at the time London was writing, but it has since been done to death and back so many times over that the original seems tame and dry by comparison (YMMV on the continued topicality).
79	* ''Literature/LadyChatterleysLover'', which places sexual passion and pleasure on a pedestal, can consequently come off as quite teenage-like now, but in 1928 caused a scandal and was banned for thirty-plus years in several countries, and when published in the UK in 1960 became the subject of an obscenity trial which, remarkably for the time, ended in the publisher's favour. It also proved very influential in the sexual revolution.
80	* ''Literature/TheLeatherstockingTales'' by James Fenimore Cooper not only put America on the literary map, but also pioneered a positive portrayal of Native Americans in adventure fiction, which got Cooper quite a bit of flak from contemporary American politicians, who at the time were pursuing an active policy of driving Indians from land that white Americans wanted. But since ''The Leatherstocking Tales'' are written in the style of Romanticism (which dramatically fell out of fashion with the rise of literary Realism), since the "NobleSavage" is now often viewed with suspicion, and since so many of Cooper's plot elements were reused by other writers of Western and general adventure fiction, he is now often viewed as trite, at least in his native America. Even before the 19th century was up, Creator/MarkTwain was excoriating Cooper as an overrated hack writer in his famous 1895 essay "Literature/FenimoreCoopersLiteraryOffenses".
81	* Creator/JaneAusten and to a lesser extent the Brontë sisters suffer from this. Their novels have had a massive influence on the RomanceNovel to the point that they may appear hopelessly clichéd and even a bit low brow because of the countless imitators.
82	** ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' is one-half this and one-half ValuesDissonance. By the standards of today, it's a generic ClicheStorm that doesn't have any tropes the reader hasn't seen before, because it was the first TropeCodifier for the RomanticComedy. In addition, Mr. Darcy is almost a cliché in his own right for being TroubledButCute... because he was the first major example of the TroubledButCute DeadpanSnarker as a male lead.
83	* ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' launched the PlanetaryRomance genre, and has been hugely influential on creators of fantasy/science fiction media, including the minds behind ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. This influence created problems for ''Film/JohnCarter'', in that while it was faithfully adapting the original novels, for those not familiar with the source works, it came across as a massive ClicheStorm.
84	* ''The Joy of Sex'' and ''Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex, but were afraid to ask'' weren't trite when they were published.
85	* Imagine this; a low-class creative-type young man is secretly in love with the one of the richest, most popular girls around, along with most of the upper-class boys, who she keeps turning down. Her peers sneer at him, behind his back, but she invites him to her big fancy house in the country. He knows he doesn't have a chance, but goes anyway. They spend a lot of time together, getting to know each other. [[spoiler:He overhears her remarks to one of her many high-class suitors about how she'll marry someone high-class, gets upset, and dresses her down for snobbery. When he cools down, he's so embarrassed that he decides to leave. She shows up and whoops, turns out it was just a misunderstanding. She was referring to him, metaphorically, and the story ends.]] Clearly this is some sort of wacky teen romantic comedy film. Except it's the poem ''Lady Geraldine's Courtship'', from the 19th century. Just put the narrator in a band, put the protagonists in high school, and set it during a weekend at her parents' house, and you'd basically have a Disney Channel Original Movie.
86	* ''Literature/{{Lensman}}''. Creator/EEDocSmith's classic saga can seem like a ClicheStorm of SpaceOpera tropes, but, of course, it ''started'' most of them.
87	* Creator/LewisCarroll:
88	** When ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' was released, it was considered very innovative for not having [[AnAesop a clear moral to the story.]] Nowadays, when it's not considered necessary for every children's book to come with a moral, few readers even think about the fact that the ''Alice'' books lack one.
89	** It can be hard to see "Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}" as a brilliant bit of nonsense poetry when many of its {{Perfectly Cromulent Word}}s (most famously "chortle" and "galumph") have since [[{{Defictionalization}} become recognized as real English words]], and are no longer "nonsense". Also, divorced from its original context in the 19th century - when published translations of Old English poetry were first becoming widely available, and were widely read by English intellectuals - it can be hard to recognize the poem as an [[AffectionateParody affectionate send-up]] of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''.
90	* ''Literature/LostSouls1992''. While Creator/PoppyZBrite's novel probably didn't originate of a lot of vampire clichés - bisexual, seductive vampires, New Orleans, Goths, HoYay - these tropes were a lot fresher when he and Creator/AnneRice wrote their books.
91	* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': This book popularized most of the cliches found in fantasy today, but modern readers may well find it unspeakably boring, purely because everything in it has since been subverted, inverted, parodied, and otherwise done to death. Aside from that though, it also has lots of UnbuiltTrope which are actually not like what non-readers think the book contains. He gave the first definitions of the stock races as mostly used today. Elves existed in many different forms in different mythologies, from little wingy [[Creator/{{Disney}} tinkerbells]] to modern fantasy '''dwarves'''; now, everyone thinks "pointy ears", archery, and intelligent beauty. Orcs were a new name, and possibly didn't exist in that form in folklore except in general as ''orcneas'', ogres. The elf-dwarf hostilities began in Tolkien. Dwarfs as bearded miners, while that did exist before, was codified. "Dwarves" was also a Tolkienism, as was the adjectival form "elven"; before Tolkien, the most accepted plural for "dwarf" was "dwarfs", and the adjectival form of "elf" was "elfin".
92	* ''Literature/MadameBovary'' by Gustave Flaubert was shocking and controversial at the time, because it was a deconstruction of the Romanticism genre and eventuallly led to the Modernism movement. Nowadays, it is mostly looked as a mundane story about an adulterous woman.
93	* ''Literature/MariaWatchesOverUs'' is gradually getting there; the series had a huge influence on the YuriGenre, but it's also been copied and especially parodied mercilessly, to the point where viewers suspect it to be a parody ''itself''. Admittedly, the romantic entanglements between the girls of the depicted all-girl school do get rather fluffy and melodramatic at times, but it's mostly kept in check by the tight storytelling and outstanding voice-acting in the anime adaptation.
94	* ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' can come off as this - In the early 20th century, these books were ''the'' fantasy books enjoyed by a PeripheryDemographic, before ''Literature/HarryPotter'' came around in the late 90s. Nowadays, the books seem ''quite'' cartoonish.
95	** They also are perhaps some of the ''earliest'' examples of WorldBuilding and TrappedInAnotherWorld, amongst many other tropes. Reading them today, they can come off as very simplistic, sometimes hard to digest due to how Baum wrote, and full of [[NewRulesAsThePlotDemands inconsistent logic]], [[DeusExMachina Deus ex Machinas]], and a load of characters who never seem to struggle to get what they want. However it's important to note that these books were written in the 1900s to the 1920s (by Baum at least) - ''long'' before many of the books that popularised fantasy were written. (The last one predates The Hobbit by ''a decade''.)
96	* Creator/MichaelMoorcock. A good bit of his work falls into this, especially ''Literature/TheElricSaga''. Like ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', he created or expanded upon many fantasy tropes that are commonplace now. Hell, even one of the introductions to the new paperback collections of Elric's tale states this. Also, all that crazy-ass, sexually deviant, creature-of-their-time, lone wolf super spy stuff (different from the way Film/JamesBond does it, mind you)? Well, that's [[Literature/TheCorneliusChronicles Jerry Cornelius]], possibly Moorcock's second most famous creation.
97	* Literature/NancyDrew can suffer from this. When the books about her first came out, a female detective as the protagonist of mystery novels for young adults was almost completely unheard of. Post-feminism, it's kind of hard to realize how influential she was (lots of prominent female politicians cite her as an inspiration). She precedes [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Ellen Ripley]] and ComicBook/WonderWoman, and has been called one of the first feminists in American fiction. Not to mention she was headstrong and adventurous, something that wasn't encouraged in children's literature (same goes for ''Literature/TheHardyBoys''). The sheer amount of imitators that have sprung up over the years Nowadays, YouMeddlingKids is a cliché in itself, and the books are seen as nostalgic at best and a little hokey at worst, while her utter perfection would have her written off as a MarySue if she were to appear for the first time today, especially if we're talking about the revised Nancy from 1959 and onwards.
98	* ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'' by William Gibson was hailed as a radical departure that overturned science fiction with its noir mood, gritty realism, and dystopian outlook. Now CyberPunk looks old-fashioned and passe to some, and ShinyLookingSpaceships are back in vogue as unironic extensions of modern consumer products.
99	* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory''. Similar to ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', it can seem an awful lot like a rather standard read, albeit a [[DoorStopper long one]] for children. A child finds a mysterious book that appears to be a gateway to another world. He appears to have found himself written into the story of this mysterious new world, and finds himself embarking on all sorts of adventures in a realm of fantasy powered by human imagination, becoming part of it all along the way, then finally departing home at the end after almost losing himself to his own fantasy and defeating the BigBad. Even if the entire story wasn't replicated ''too'' much (''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' comes close, however), a lot of the book's themes seem a bit... well, cliché. The plot itself doesn't seem to be anything new either.
100	** Its length as well - after ''Literature/HarryPotter'', it's hard to believe that this was probably the largest book that you would find in the children's section that ''wasn't'' an omnibus of some kind.
101	* ''Literature/{{Pamela}}; or, Virtue Rewarded'' by Samuel Richardson is a particularly notorious example of this. Back in 1740 when the novel as a genre was still fairly new, it revolutionized the genre by introducing psychological analysis i.e. it focused on thoughts and emotions, rather than just actions. Since then, it has fallen victim to ValuesDissonance so hard that it might as well be considered CondemnedByHistory, with the unfortunate combination of having a main lead who's more or less completely perfect and being extremely preachy. Oh, and it throws in extremely dated ideas like how women must always obey their husbands for good measure. Heck, Richardson himself said he wrote it to persuade people to act more virtuously. When the author himself admits the entire novel is a morality lecture, you have trouble.
102	* ''Literature/PaulClifford'', Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's fifth novel, was an immense commercial success when first published. Today, it is remembered only as the origin of the notorious "ItWasADarkAndStormyNight".
103	* Creator/RobertSheckley's stories "The Prize of Peril" and "The Seventh Victim" detail a DeadlyGame in which players are trying to compete for popularity and life-changing money. To do so, the protagonists are put in life-threatening peril. While plenty of others have come up with the various ideas, the idea of the DeadlyGame was something ''quite'' surprising and shocking to viewers. After works such as ''Manga/{{Kaiji}}'', ''Film/WouldYouRather'', ''Manga/AsTheGodsWill'', ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'', and ''Series/SquidGame'', the premise might seem ''quite'' tame!
104	* ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'' (1719) by Daniel Defoe is one of, if not the first English novel, as well as the novel that established realistic fiction (i.e. novels that are fictional but whose events and characters feel plausible enough to be able to happen in real life) as a genre, and with that comes great significance. However, it reflects the religious and racial views of its time, and for modern readers can be downright uncomfortable to read as a result.
105	* Science fiction in general. Technologies that used to be completely fantastic tend to become TruthInTelevision decades later. See also TechnologyMarchesOn.
106	* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'':
107	** Back when it was published, it was quite a unique read due to its place on the very end of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism combined with the LemonyNarrator. These days, many books have utilised that trope along with the UnreliableNarrator that Handler's use of the trope may come off as a bit stale if not flat out patronising.
108	** The fact that the series underwent CerebusSyndrome was actually ''quite'' shocking back in the day... even though it took five books (and another two following that) to ''really'' let the WhamEpisode sink in. Many books released ''following'' that often ended in some kind of a WhamEpisode or ''featured'' a [[MidseasonTwist mid-book twist]] - the fact that ''Unfortunate Events'' had the same doesn't seem very interesting.
109	** Its MythArc, despite being [[MilkmanConspiracy actually simplistic in explanation]], was not fully explained via the main series of books. Even when you read [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary materials]], [[JigsawPlot enough questions were still unanswered]] even when they were done. It made a lot of people ''really'' speculate things - even until the [[Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents2017 Netflix adaptation]], overseen ''by'' Handler. It's hard to take into account just how rare it was for young adult fiction to instill this kind of debate.
110	** Similarly, the fact that its supplementary material existed was actually ''quite'' novel during the TurnOfTheMillennium. A SpinOff wasn't new by any means, but it was part of a MythArc and not quite capable of standing on its own like most others were.
111	* Literature/SherlockHolmes. Some argue that he qualifies as a "stock character", arguing that even though he was the ''origin'' of various clichés, to a modern reader, they are just clichés, while conveniently ignoring that later series wouldn't exist without Holmes.
112	** Holmes is a fleshed-out version of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's Literature/CAugusteDupin. Dupin can extrapolate from tiny clues, scoffs at the clueless police, and has a narrator friend who worships him. There's actually a LampshadeHanging on this in the very first Holmes story.
113	** Also, in the Holmes short stories Arthur Conan Doyle basically invented the concept of having a series of episodes starring the same [[{{RegularCharacter}} regular characters]] in self-contained plots. (Before Holmes, magazines usually published serialized novels that [[{{ContinuityLockout}} required readers to have been following from the beginning]]). You know, as in the format that was appropriated by [[IndexOfTheWeek just about every single TV show ever.]]
114	* The ''Literature/SnowCrash'' physical manifestation of the internet can come off as either a brilliant, eerie prediction of the future or a "I know this already" unsurprising setting depending on whether you read it before or after ''VideoGame/SecondLife'' proved ''everything.''
115	* ''Literature/SisterPrincess'' seems to be an incredibly cliche series nowadays, particular if one is already familiar with other series from the HaremGenre. However, it's one of the TropeCodifier of "otherworldly harem" series.
116	* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
117	** For about ten years, it was considered the ultimate in subversive epic fantasy. Little to no magic, no elves or dwarves (at least, not fantasy dwarves), profanity, uncensored sex, graphic violence and no PlotArmor for ''anyone''. But it was also a heavily character-driven piece with genuine heart, even if that wasn't always recognized. By the 2010s, it had spawned so many imitators who mainly copied its surface qualities (extreme violence and death, explicit sex) that it no longer feels like anything really different, and is primarily thought of as "that series where everybody dies" due to its at-the-time-unheard-of tendency to kill characters that would usually survive to the end of similar books.
118	** The violence and sex weren't the only things copied - the "mundanity" of its setting was also one of the most copied elements as well. Unlike a lot of fantasy settings at the time which were often heavily fantastical, Westeros only had fantasy ''elements'' and tried to be more realistic with its magic being heavily limited. Whilst this has always been a thing in fantasy (LowFantasy thrives off of this), it's become so prevalent that including more fantastical elements front and centre is actually seen as somewhat subversive in TheNewTwenties because there are just ''that many'' fantasy books that brush aside most fantastical elements
119	* ''Literature/ASoundOfThunder'', a short story by Creator/RayBradbury, was about time travelers who went back to prehistoric times, [[ButterflyOfDoom killed a butterfly]], and [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel accidentally caused a fascist candidate to win the presidential elections]]. Which was a really original plot, when it was written. However, those story elements are so trite now that when the movie loosely based on the story was made, it was criticized for using old, tired cliches.
120	* ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'' was one of the earlier science fiction works to portray aliens as being morally superior to humanity, as opposed to most other works of the period, which treated aliens as hostile invaders. Nowadays having aliens be better than or comparable to humans in a moral sense is far more common.
121	* Creator/StephenKing's books have fallen into this due to so many modern horror writers copying his style. When he first published ''Literature/SalemsLot'' and ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', the idea of bringing horror out of gothic castles and into [[EverytownAmerica average New England towns]] revitalized the genre. Now, between King and the rediscovery of Creator/HPLovecraft, merely [[LovecraftCountry setting a piece of horror fiction in New England]] is seen as a cliche.
122	* While ''Literature/SalemsLot'' is still considered to be one of King's best books, after almost fifty years of Stephen King novels, the way he brings a whole community to life and weaves them into his horror plot can feel less novel and unique.
123	* ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein features a Jesus-like human from Mars who can perform telekinesis, telepathy, and miraculous healing simply by meditating. He spends most of the novel trying to "understand Earth behavior" and ends up bringing his followers sexual liberation. Most people nowadays tend to forget that Heinlein wrote the novel in ''the '50s'' but that it was only deemed publishable in 1961, when the hippie movement was just getting started. It ended up having a huge influence on the counterculture mentality of the '60s and '70s, predating ''Literature/JonathanLivingstonSeagull'' by over a decade. Many attitudes in modern New Age philosophy are taken directly from Heinlein's work, often disguised as ancient Eastern wisdom.
124	** A lot of Heinlein's works have ended up as this simply due to the sheer amount of influence he had on science fiction at the time. ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' and ''Literature/ThePuppetMasters'' are two especially good examples.
125	* ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji''. It's considered one of the first modern novels, if not ''the'' first. Nowadays, it can be ''quite'' hard to get into.
126	* ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' can get hit with a big dose of this by the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fandom today. By now, we've had a ''long'' time to get used to living in a world with over 100 published ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' novels, a whole trilogy of official {{prequel}} films, and - at long last - an honest-to-God [[Film/TheForceAwakens seventh episode]] that actually brought back Luke, Han and the rest of the gang for more adventures. In 1991, there was just the Original Trilogy, and a paltry handful of licensed comic books and young adult novels to content the hardcore fans. With that in mind, you can understand why it was ''a pretty big deal'' when Lucasfilm announced that Creator/TimothyZahn would be writing an all-new trilogy of novels that actually attempted to continue the story of the ''Star Wars'' saga after the Battle of Endor - complete with a love interest for Luke, babies for Han and Leia, and a new BigBadDuumvirate who were explicitly written [[ContrastingSequelAntagonist to contrast Vader and Palpatine in every way]]. Case in point: the only reason it's known as ''"The Thrawn Trilogy"'' today is so fans can keep it separate from all the other ''Star Wars'' novels (including several trilogies) that came after it; at the time, it was just marketed as ''"The Star Wars Trilogy"'', because it was the first new trilogy that fans had seen since 1983.
127	* ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' might seem like it fits all the familiar YA dystopia cliches to new readers- a love triangle, a teenage girl who has to save the world, a society divided into strict groups and sub-groups, etc. But it was published before the genre became massively popular, and helped create some of the tropes people would later get sick of.
128	* ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'': The characters seem incredibly stereotyped to modern eyes because the popularity of the book - and the minstrel shows inspired by or at least [[InNameOnly named for]] it -- ''established'' those very stereotypes.
129	* ''Literature/ValleyOfTheDolls'' was a scandalous read when it was released - some book stores even resorting to selling it under the counter. It wasn't the first to explore the HorribleHollywood trope - ''Film/SunsetBoulevard'' and ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'' had done so already. But Jacqueline Susann had spent her previous career as an actress and used details from her own experiences to create details that shocked the public. Modern readers wouldn't find anything too shocking or surprising.
130	* Nowadays, ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' by Creator/RobertJordan is considered a horrendously cliched example of how all fantasy books are too long, with series that go on seemingly without end and yet little happens in them. When the first volume was published, in 1991, most fantasy novels were actually quite short, and/or tended to be trilogies or quintets at the very longest. However, he inspired so many other writers to [[{{Padding}} pad out their volumes]] and stretch their stories over ten or twelve volumes that by the 2000s he gets lumped in with those he inspired, often cited as the UrExample, but rarely acknowledged as the man who started the trend.
131	* Creator/WilliamMorris (1834-1896) attempted to revive the ChivalricRomance genre with novels ''Literature/TheWoodBeyondTheWorld'' (1894) and ''Literature/TheWellAtTheWorldsEnd'' (1896), creating "an entirely invented fantasy world" as their setting. These works and his earlier HistoricalFantasy novels influenced writers such as Creator/LordDunsany, Eric Rücker Eddison, James Branch Cabell, Creator/JRRTolkien, and Creator/CSLewis. Problem is that they are among the founding works of MedievalEuropeanFantasy. They had a noticeable influence in the development of HeroicFantasy, HighFantasy, and even the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. There is now nothing innovative about creating an invented world, and his works were considered dated by TheSeventies. His books and those of the other authors mentioned here were among those reprinted by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series Ballantine Adult Fantasy series]] starting in the mid-70s, founded by Creator/LinCarter partly as an attempt to prove that Tolkien did not singlehandedly invent fantasy literature or WorldBuilding or even the StandardFantasySetting.
132	* When they were originally published, Creator/PGWodehouse's early school stories were innovative in that they were intended as stories for schoolboys to enjoy, rather than badly-disguised religious propaganda. After more than a century of school stories in that style, Wodehouse's just come across as generic.
133	* When the 2017 LiveActionAdaptation of ''Literature/TheWorstWitch'' premièred, a lot of people wrote it off as a blatant rip-off of ''Franchise/HarryPotter''. Turns out that [[OlderThanTheyThink the first book was published in 1974]], and the series was one of the most direct inspirations for ''Harry Potter''.
134	* Franchise/{{Zorro}} certainly qualifies. In the original novel, Don Diego Vega's SecretIdentity is patently obvious to anyone familiar with basically any superhero comic book at all, including by PopCulturalOsmosis, even if they're not familiar with Zorro as a franchise. Many of those comics[[note]]most notably Franchise/{{Batman}}, to the point that almost every mainstream retelling of the [[DeathByOriginStory the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne]] since Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'' (the lone exception to date being ''Film/BatmanBegins'') shows them leaving a screening of a Zorro movie, usually ''Film/TheMarkOfZorro1940''[[/note]] were ''inspired'' by Zorro in the first place. Also, some people think Zorro was inspired by ''Literature/TheScarletPimpernel'', Myth/RobinHood, and the like.

Context OnceOriginalNowCommon / Literature